“During the opening session of the tenth synod of the Protestant Church of Czech Brethren that took place on February 13th, 1950, these words were said aloud: ‘You, synod of the Protestant Church of Czech Brethren, you betray Jesus Christ by your false attitude towards our state. Jesus Christ was not supported by the state but he was crucified by the perfidious Church and state!’ Sochor, the secretary of the synod council, recorded the following words: ‘A young person interrupted the synod meeting in an unpleasant way with his exclamation to the synod. He shouted that the synod should wake up and shouldn’t betray Jesus Christ by connecting with the state.’ It was the moment that launched it all. By that event I sowed through the bough on which I was sitting and as a result they started persecuting me. It was me who sat at the back of the Salvátor church at that time and made that statement. Because my voice was very strong, I literally shouted. Then, an awful murmur started and a gentlemen from the StB (State Security) came immediately to me. They sent me right away to Bartolomějská Street where the investigation started.”
“I knew immediately that I would be imprisoned. Of course I was ready to refuse the training with weapons and the oath of allegiance; this was nothing but obvious to me. The procedure was as follows: First I was imprisoned in the barracks of Jiří z Poděbrad in Prague. Then two soldiers escorted me to Klatovy where I was supposed to do my military service. The conflict occurred when I told them that I refused military service and that I couldn’t serve in arms because of my religious belief. Of course they didn’t understand that at all. They did it this way; they exposed me to certain pressure and I was sent to the conscripts who were supposed to do drills, learn to salute etc... However, I did not salute. I clearly showed them I didn’t want to have anything in common with it all. And my colleagues didn’t understand this. There was already a conflict. I was imprisoned there as a prisoner in a cell. There came a message that all prisoners should go to clean the toilets. It was about ten o’clock or half past ten and I said I was not going. It had nothing to do with my religious belief. But the reason was that all prisoners were entitled to sleep from eleven p.m. till five a.m. And it was after eleven p.m. and I said that we had the right to sleep. However, what happened was that some of my colleagues said that they wouldn’t go either, which was dangerous – there was threat of a riot. The result of it was that I was escorted to the military prison in Písek immediately in the morning. I had some problems there again.”
“We refused to work in the camp mines, everywhere, anywhere they were. It meant that we refused to mine uranium ore. The situation looked like this, because we refused to work when the others went on normally to work, we became the victims of horrific hostility and violence. They tried to break us down, in all of the camps.”
“My name is Petr Jankovský. I was born in Myslkov at Sedlčany on August 17th, 1927. It is a tiny village and both my parents worked there as teachers at a local primary school. My memories of this place are not too extensive because we moved to Jetřichovice when I was three years old. My mother was always the head teacher and my father passed his technical exams and then he taught at a secondary school in Sedlec. Then we moved from Jetřichovice to Prague-Žižkov. My parents continued in their teaching professions. My father was a headmaster of a couple of secondary schools and my mother was a head teacher at a primary school – last time in Jeseniova Street.”
“You asked me a very good question referring to what kept me going. So I'll tell you something; many people are church goers and they believe in God or they believe that there must be something. However, my faith is similar to that of the Jehovah’s Witnesses. I’m convinced that God wants to lead a dialog with us. It means that we can address Him and He replies to us. And this is just from prayer because you don’t find your strength anywhere else but in prayer. And we prayed very much and I still keep praying a lot. When I have a problem I ask God to give me wisdom so that I know what to do. And I can tell you that God – not always immediately -, but He always gives me an answer and the answer is always right. So this is the dialog.”
Petr Jankovský was born in Myslkov at Sedlčany on August 17th, 1927. Both his parents were teachers. The family eventually settled down in Prague‘s Žižkov neighborhood where both his parents continued in their teaching professions. He started attending grammar school in 1938, however, he had to leave the school because of his father‘s dissensions with one of the German professors. He graduated from the school only in 1947. In the meantime, he managed to get training as a maltster in the Prague brewery, Staropramen, by passing his apprenticeship exams in 1944. In Prague, the Jankovský family took part in religious life at the Protestant Congregation in Žižko where the priest Vladimír Čapek preached. It was there that the idea of studying Theology started for him. Having passed his graduation exam he applied at the Hussite Czechoslovak Protestant Theological Department in Prague. The young theologian accepted with displeasure the arrival of Communist power, especially after February 1948. when his father was the first to experience repression under the totalitarian regime. He was investigated shortly after he became an active Social Democrat had refused any connection with the KSČ (the Communist Party of Czechoslovakia). The influence of the atheistic state became more and more apparent within the department as well. Petr Jankovský belonged to a group of students who became distinct by accepting new religious legislation, connecting the Church with the state and from teaching matters on people‘s democracy (Marxism-Leninism). In February 1950 Petr Jankovský‘s efforts culminated in his his free-hearted exclamation in the synod of the ČCE (the Protestant Church of Czech Brethren), in which he warned the Church against betraying Jesus Christ. His arrest and a short investigation followed. Because of the difficult situation, Petr Jankovský left the department in May, 1950. He worked for a short time as a gardener. However, in no time he received a draft notice for daily military service. Having refused the oath of allegiance and military service with a weapon he was eventually imprisoned in Prague, Klatovy and Písek. There he was sentenced to four years of confinement by a court martial. He was imprisoned together with others who had refused military service and who belonged to the Seventh-day Adventist Church and Jehovah‘s Witnesses; together they were in working camps at Jakubčovice nad Odrou and Leskoun. Later on he went through strict prisons in Plzeň Bory and Opava. After the suggestion of a rebellion that broke out in the Leskoun camp, (when the prisoners were deprived of Bibles) he was escorted to the Rovnost camp. He and two Jehovah‘s Witnesses experienced literal martyrdom there. They were brutally beaten physically and badly treated after refusing to to work in the uranium mines. At the same time, he was forced to march along the camp barbed during a couple of frosty days until complete exhaustion . He was conditionally released on August 21st, 1953. However, before that he was sent to camp X in Horní Slavkov where he experienced rough treatment. After coming home he worked as a laborer and for the JZD (Collective Farming). At the end of 60s he was allowed to finish his Theology education. In 1968-1972 he worked as a priest of the ČCE (the Protestant Church of Czech Brethren) in Heřmanův Městec and in Soběslav. When moving his friend, Milan Balabán, to Strmilov he met his wife-to-be. They brought up a daughter and a son - both of them were deprived of the possibility to study due to their father‘s personal profile. His life is based on faith and a dialog with God. His recourse was always prayer.
Hrdinové 20. století odcházejí. Nesmíme zapomenout. Dokumentujeme a vyprávíme jejich příběhy. Záleží vám na odkazu minulých generací, na občanských postojích, demokracii a vzdělávání? Pomozte nám!
